THE_NEW_RULES

Stories Over Software: Has Marketing Replaced Merit?

Chapter 9: The Origin Story Imperative

"Products with compelling narratives get 47% more adoption than technically superior alternatives. The story you tell about your code matters more than the code itself."

The book argues that narrative beats features every time. Great story with okay product beats great product with no story. But isn't this exactly what's wrong with tech? Are we becoming storytellers instead of engineers?

Questions for Debate:

The Merit Myth

  • Should inferior products win because of better stories?
  • Are we rewarding marketing over engineering excellence?
  • What happens to innovation when narrative matters most?

The Story Requirement

  • Why should developers need to be storytellers?
  • Is requiring narrative skills exclusionary?
  • Are introverted builders at a disadvantage?

The Substance Problem

  • When story matters more than code, who's writing code?
  • Are we creating a generation of marketers who code?
  • Is technical excellence becoming irrelevant?

Share Your Experience:

The Story Sellers:

  • How has narrative helped your technically inferior product succeed?
  • What story elements resonate most with developers?
  • Do you feel guilty when story beats substance?

The Feature Builders:

  • Have you lost to inferior products with better stories?
  • Why do you resist the narrative requirement?
  • Can technical excellence speak for itself?

The Market Reality:

The Success Stories:

The book highlights:

  • Docker's "shipping containers for code" narrative

  • Rust's "memory safety without garbage collection" story

  • Tailwind's "utility-first CSS" philosophy

  • Are these success stories or just successful stories?

  • Did narrative create success or explain it retroactively?

  • Would these have succeeded without stories?

The Failure Analysis:

  • What great technologies died due to poor narratives?
  • Can you name superior products that lost to stories?
  • Is this trend reversible or permanent?

The Cultural Impact:

The Engineering Identity:

  • Are we engineers or content creators?
  • Should code quality be the primary metric?
  • Is requiring storytelling changing who becomes a developer?

The Attention Economy:

  • Is narrative just adaptation to information overload?
  • Can complex truth compete with simple stories?
  • Are we dumbing down technology?

The Innovation Effect:

  • Do stories drive innovation or constrain it?
  • Are we building to fit narratives instead of solving problems?
  • What happens when the story becomes more important than reality?

The Skill Question:

For Developers:

  • Should storytelling be taught in CS programs?
  • Is narrative ability now a core developer skill?
  • How do you develop storytelling without sacrificing technical skills?

For Teams:

  • Should you hire for narrative ability?
  • Do you need dedicated "story developers"?
  • How do you balance engineering and narrative?

The Philosophical Angle:

The Truth Question:

  • Is a compelling false narrative better than boring truth?
  • Should stories accurately represent products?
  • Who's responsible when narratives mislead?

The Value Creation:

  • Does narrative actually create value or just perceived value?
  • Are stories making products better or just seeming better?
  • Is this sustainable or headed for correction?

The Counter-Argument:

Maybe stories were always crucial:

  • Unix had "everything is a file"
  • Object-oriented had "messages between objects"
  • REST had "resources and representations"

Were these innovations or stories about innovations?

Your Position:

Is the emphasis on narrative improving or corrupting software development?

Should developers embrace storytelling or resist it?

Loading comments...